Stentys has developed the world's first next-generation dedicated drug-eluting stent for treatment of blocked coronary artery bifurcations that is designed so that hundreds of thousands of patients might avoid open-chest surgery. This sixth case, similar to the five previous cases, took routine interventional time to complete; the patient was released from the ICU within hours of the implantation of the Stentys bifurcated stent and was discharged from the hospital shortly after the procedure.

"The fact that the Stentys procedure is identical to the current standard techniques while allowing more treatment options with side-branch access suggests that this platform has the potential to offer a practical alternative to conventional stenting procedures in treating blocked coronary artery bifurcations," said Dr. Patrick Serruys, who is head of Erasmus Medical Center's department of interventional cardiology and a member of the Stentys scientific advisory board.

The patent-pending innovation of Stentys' bifurcated stent is that the stent-opening for the side branch can be created anywhere in the stent after it is implanted in the vessel. The procedure's success is reportedly independent from accurate positioning. The Stentys procedure is performed in three simple steps: (1) Stentys is implanted in the main vessel with an approximate positioning, like a standard stent; (2) the cardiologist chooses the optimal location for the side branch opening by inserting a balloon through the stent mesh, which is a cath lab-standard procedure; and, (3) the balloon inflation disconnects the mesh and creates the opening Stentys self-expanding property is designed to allow the in situ modeling of the stent to fit the patient's unique arterial anatomy.